PGA Tour gamers competing on this week’s controversial Saudi Arabia-backed LIV Golf Sequence match have been suspended from the tour. Now, they’ve drawn the ire of a outstanding 9/11 survivors group.
On Friday, 911familiesunited.org, a coalition of households and survivors of the 2001 terrorist assaults, despatched a scathing letter to representatives of Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau, Patrick Reed and Kevin Na expressing their outrage towards the golfers for taking part within the new league and accusing them of sportswashing and betraying the US.
“As a freedom-loving American, I'm grateful to have the liberty of alternative the place I work and who I work for, and I respect your proper as properly,” wrote Terry Strada, the group’s nationwide chair and a mom of three whose husband, Tom, was on the 104th flooring of the north tower of the World Commerce Middle throughout the assaults. “As a 9/11 widow, I really feel compelled that can assist you perceive the extent of depravity the Kingdom engaged in when it knowingly despatched authorities brokers right here to ascertain the assist community wanted for these hijackers.
“As you could know, Osama bin Laden and 15 of the 19 September 11 hijackers have been Saudis. It was the Saudis who cultivated and unfold the evil, hate-filled Islamist ideology that impressed the violent jihadists to hold out the lethal 9/11 assaults. And, most egregiously, it's the Kingdom that has spent 20 years in denial: mendacity about their actions, and cowardly dodging the duty they bear. But these are your companions, and far to our disappointment, you seem happy to be in enterprise with them.
“Given Saudi Arabia’s function within the loss of life of our family members and people injured on 9/11—your fellow Individuals—we're angered that you're so prepared to assist the Saudis cowl up this historical past of their request for ‘respectability.’ If you companion with the Saudis, you turn into complicit with their whitewash, and assist give them the reputational cowl they so desperately crave—and are prepared to pay handsomely to fabricate. The Saudis don't care concerning the deep-rooted sportsmanship of golf or its origins as a gentleman’s recreation constructed upon core values of mutual respect and private integrity. They care about utilizing skilled golf to whitewash their fame, and they're paying you to assist them do it.”
Earlier this 12 months, Mickelson set off a storm of criticism when he instructed a author that the Saudi authorities are “scary motherf—kers” and admitted that the golf league was getting used for “sportswashing” by the regime, however that he was utilizing the rival circuit as leverage towards the PGA Tour, which he accused of being a monopoly.
This week, Mickelson emerged from a four-month hiatus to play in LIV Golf’s first match outdoors London, the place he was grilled as being a “Saudi stooge.” He was additionally joined by Johnson, Na and others. DeChambeau and Reed additionally jumped from the PGA Tour to LIV Golf earlier this week and can make their debut later this month in Portland, the place they’ll even be joined by Pat Perez, the most recent participant to commit.
The gamers competing within the LIV Golf Sequence are assured an infinite payday with no minimize within the 54-hole tournaments, and Mickelson, Johnson and DeChambeau have acquired nine-figure offers only for becoming a member of.
Extra gamers are additionally anticipated to defect from the PGA Tour to LIV Golf, which is backed by the Public Funding Fund — the Saudi sovereign wealth fund headed by crown prince Mohammed bin Salman that's primarily bankrolling the collection. MBS, as he's identified, was behind the homicide of Washington Put up journalist Jamal Khashoggi within the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, in 2018, in line with US intelligence.
Months earlier than formally becoming a member of LIV Golf, Mickelson — who like the opposite Individuals competing received’t be allowed to play within the Presidents Cup and probably the Ryder Cup —acknowledged the killing, in addition to human rights atrocities in Saudi Arabia. He condemned them throughout his opening press convention however stated the chance was too good to show down.
“We perceive that a few of you're hopeful that rule adjustments can be applied to can help you once more signify America within the Ryder Cup, regardless of your betrayal of American pursuits in becoming a member of the Saudi ‘sports activities wash,'” Strada stated within the letter. “It's absurd for any American who chooses Saudi oil cash over the September 11 group to suppose that these exceptions ought to be made, and we are going to you'll want to say so publicly do you have to pursue that path underneath the misguided notion that your betrayal will go unnoticed.”
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